Tag: Bible Study

Alive and Wonderful

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Each year, I try to read through the whole Bible – from Genesis to Revelation. Here are a few things I learned while reading through the Bible this year:

  • Read the Bible to develop your relationship with Jesus, not just to learn more facts. – Partway through the year, I heard a string of sermons about reading the Bible. This helped adjust my perspective on reading God’s Word, and reminded me to ask God to reveal Himself to me in a new way each time I read or listened to the Bible. Yes, I was learning facts and reading new stories, but the most important reason for reading was to build my relationship with Jesus.

  • The Word of God is living and active (Heb. 4:12) – As I’ve worked through a Bible reading plan, it’s amazing to see how God makes the selection of chapters from that day apply to what’s happening in my life. For example, one week I was thinking about praise and wondering how else I could say thank you to God. I “happened” to get to a section of Psalms full of people expressing their praise to God. This gave me more words to express my own praise.

  • Pray that people will know that God is the Lord. – In prophecies about Israel or other nations, God would judge or save “so they may know [He] is the Lord” (see Ex. 7:17, Eze. 11:12). Also, people prayed for God to act, not for their own sake, but so other nations would see God as powerful (see Dan. 9:17). Even today, God is working so that people will repent and believe in Him (see 2 Peter 3:9). I can pray that people will know and act like Jesus is Lord.

Life Lesson: Keep reading God’s Word (the Bible).

Drained. Strengthened. Compelled.

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There’s one verse about David, a man who lived in biblical times, that I always liked, but never understood.  

And Jonathan, Saul’s son, set out and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God. 1 Samuel 23:16, NASB

I had an experience that helped me better understand this verse. But first, let me tell you about David.

What Happened to David

A lot. David had an awesome day where he killed a giant and saved the lives of his fellow Israelites. After that battle, he was invited to work for Saul, the king himself. That’s where he met Jonathan, the king’s son, and they developed a deep friendship.

As David worked in the king’s army, he was successful in every mission. He became a high ranking official and incredibly popular.

But, Saul started to become jealous and afraid of David. David’s success showed that God was helping David, but He was no longer helping Saul. Saul’s fear became so intense, that he tried to kill David a bunch of times. Once, when Jonathan defended David to the king, Saul tried to kill Jonathan—his own son.

Saul was determined to kill David and anyone who helped him. In fact, Saul killed 85 priests after they gave David supplies. David ran from country to wilderness to country, trying to escape. In some places he was almost betrayed by the people who were hiding him. He was physically and emotionally exhausted.

“David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands. While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.” 1 Samuel 23:14-16

Drained

I had an emotionally draining day—one where a lot of little stressors piled on top of each other and sapped my emotional and physical strength. Unfortunately, I did not have time to be emotionally drained; it was my turn to help lead an online Bible study for young adults.

As I got ready, I tried to talk some energy and strength into myself. I recited Bible verses like “the joy of the Lord is my strength” and prayed for God to strengthen me. Most times, this helps right away, but this time, not so much.

6:15 pm came, and I plopped myself in front of my computer to help lead this group. I usually meet with some friends (and co-leaders) a few minutes before the rest of the group comes. We have known each other for almost two years, so we’ve gotten pretty close. Even so, I was debating whether or not to tell them how I was truly feeling. I did not want “bleed on them” or to take away from our preparation time by talking about my problems. Aren’t we all facing stressful situations?

I found myself telling them that I had one of those days, and was still struggling.

Encouraged

Each of my friends prayed for me that evening — asking Jesus to strengthen me and for other, beautiful things that I don’t remember. As each friend prayed, I felt myself getting stronger and stronger. When they finished, I felt great! The change was too quick and drastic to be natural; my friends helped me to find strength in God. 

When the rest of the group joined us, we talked more about life in general and what it means to be known by others and by God. Talking with friends about God and His Word encouraged me even more. By the time we finished our meeting, I was craving time with God. After everyone left the meeting, I was compelled to continue spending time with Jesus by singing along to worship music.

Jonathan Helped David Find Strength in God

Maybe this is what the Bible means when it says the Jonathan helped David find strength in God. David had been going hard and facing a lot of uncertainty for what I’m sure felt like unending days. He needed help to get what he needed from God.

That day, I needed strength from God, but could not get there on my own. My friends prayed for me and helped turn my thoughts toward who God is, which pushed me even closer to Jesus and finding strength in Him.

My Prayer for You

When you cannot experience Jesus’ joy or peace or strength yourself, I pray that the people around you would help you to find strength in Jesus. When you are strong, I pray that you are that person for others.

Life Lesson: When you can’t get to Jesus on our own, we need friends who will help us find strength in Him.

It’s a Balance

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Work. Life. School. Family. Friends.

I’m definitely a work in progress in this area, but I will share what I have learned that helps me to have joy in this season of life.

A few months ago, I was really struggling to balance all of my commitments; to do them all, and to do them well. I focused so much of my energy on my full-time job, both on and off the clock, that I was too exhausted to do much else. I’m also in graduate school and was taking my hardest class yet, struggling to keep up with both work and school.

In the middle of this, I went to an online group for young adults and the speaker was talking about priorities. He said a few things that I decided to put into practice.

1) You always have time for what you do first. This makes perfect sense, but really think about it, what do you do first? Is it work, school, talking to friends, crafting a perfect Instagram photo and caption? That indicates your top priority.

2) If you try to give everything the same attention, you will always be putting out fires. It may sound like this: “Oh, no, I haven’t spent enough time with my family…Ugh, now I’m spending a lot of time with my family, but haven’t done any schoolwork…Finally caught up on schoolwork, and realizing I forgot about Jesus. Sorry Jesus, I’m coming back to You now.” And on it goes.

So, I made a list—

  1. God
  2. Schoolwork
  3. Ministry
  4. Work

—and started refocusing. (I usually had time for family and friends, but I struggled with the four areas listed above.)

If God is #1, that means He gets the best of my energy. The first thing I do when I wake up is spend time with Jesus—reading the Bible, praying, singing along with worship music, etc. He gets the best of my brain, so to speak.

If schoolwork is #2, that means it gets the next part of my energy. I used to “do my homework” after work and spending time with my family. By then it was more like reading myself to sleep. The past few weeks, I’ve started to do homework in the morning, before I get ready for work. Then, I am better focused and can study more efficiently.

Ministry is #3, that’s mainly my role with Young Adults at Times Square Church.

Then comes work as #4. Work is something that must get done, whether I am tired or not, and it’s never fully finished. Having work fourth on this list means that I can take care of those other priorities well and finish my work.

Those tips really helped me balance my commitments better. I hope it helps you, too.

Life Lesson: To better balance competing commitments, keep your priorities in order.

Shameless Plug: Times Square Church has a great young adults group (@tscya). If you are 18-29 years young, I highly recommend their group. You can sign up here. If you are 30-40, join this connect group run by some fun and amazing solid people. These are virtual groups, so you join from anywhere. Come, and don’t forget to say hello!

Bible Memorization is Still Possible

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I used to hear stories of people who have memorized whole books of the Bible and think, How on earth is that possible?

I started memorizing scriptures as a weapon against sadness and loneliness. So far, I have memorized several chapters in Psalms. Realizing God’s characteristics and qualities shifted my perspective on the world and gave me joy, hope, and peace.

Tips for Bible Memorization

  • Study the verse. Things stick better after you have studied them. For each Bible verse I memorize, I also read the cross-references—not just the individual verses, but the whole paragraph or chapter around the cross-reference. Then I write down what I learned from that particular verse.
  • Memorize the verse. People memorize things differently. I write the verse over and over in cursive. Saying the verse out loud while I write also helps me commit it to memory.
  • Meditate on the verse. There is a verse that says “May the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). After I finish studying and memorizing, I try to think about the verse throughout the day. Whenever I felt sad or lonely, I would recite my newly memorized verse. This helped me to remember it better and most importantly, it refreshed my soul.

Life Lesson: Memorizing Bible verses is possible and it’s life-giving.